EBay Colored Stones

[ThrillofIce1014]

Hey fellow PSers!

I have been doing a lot of shopping around and I have been looking on EBay quite a bit. I just wanted to ask this:

Has anyone gotten a great deal on a sapphire or another gemstone on EBay?
If so, who was the seller (private or big store)?
When you received your stone, was it all you were hoping for or was it a sham?

Just trying to get an idea of who I can trust! Thank you everyone

 

[T L]

Hey fellow PSers!

I have been doing a lot of shopping around and I have been looking on EBay quite a bit. I just wanted to ask this:

Has anyone gotten a great deal on a sapphire or another gemstone on EBay?
If so, who was the seller (private or big store)?
When you received your stone, was it all you were hoping for or was it a sham?

Just trying to get an idea of who I can trust! Thank you everyone

I have to say the stones on ebay lately have been a bit pitiful, included and not very pretty, and prices have gone up and up. A couple of years ago, you could get a magnificent gem for a great price. I think all the good material is going to Hong Kong, as they're supposedly buying everything up, and the ebayers are getting the 'leftovers." It's a pattern that's repeating itself at gem shows too I hear.

Popular ebay stores are in the recommended vendor list at the top of this forum. I still ebay, but it's getting harder and harder to find anything decent. *sigh*

Rather than find the "bargain of bargains," I think the important thing with ebay is to find an honest vendor that will provide lab reports from well known and reputable labs, and that have a very decent feedback score and accurate photos/videos. I think Tan of Odysseygem, Gemburionline, VVS1GEM meets those requirements, and he has a very good reputation on this forum. His pricing is also fair for most gems, and I like that he provides videos.

I can show you some of the great deals I did get, but you probably won't find such deals anymore unless you are very lucky I think. Others may disagree with me.

 

[movie zombie]

additionally, TL spent years learning while collecting. she has developed a relationship with Tan as well as some other eBay vendors. imo, it is unrealistic to expect to find a "bargain of all bargains" without having spent the time, effort, and $ as TL has. she has developed her eye for her budget. TL has honestly assessed eBay for you....and know that over the years she has been a great proponent of eBay. she has also in the past said that there are stones she bought early on that were "learning" stones. we all have them. the world of color stones is much harder to navigate than that of white/colorless diamonds. i also believe that many think that color stones are of less value than diamonds. nothing could be farther from the truth.....for some of us. i'd also go on to say that right now there is no such thing as a great bargain sapphire. the recent royal wedding made sapphires the honored guest at the color stone party right now.

however, learning and "the hunt" can and should be fun. welcome to the world of color!

 

[minousbijoux]

When I first joined PS, I did the same thing - posted a query regarding ebay vendors. If you spend some time reading the threads, you'll come to realize that there are pros and cons to just about each vendor on ebay. It will be interesting to see what others respond and say. TL is right - the few vendors that have a positive consensus from us PSers are listed on the pinned thread, above. But there are others PS members use and you'll probably find your own favorite as you delve into colored stones.

If you are looking for small stones, I would also say that Srilankamall and its sister store (can't remember the name right now) have good spinels, sapphires, and chrysoberyls. Many vendors seem to have a certain area of expertise and you'll get to know that too. I agree with TL that there seems to be slim pickings these days on ebay. In fact, I can't remember the last time I bought a stone on ebay.

Good luck.

 

[LD]

This is an interesting question. 10 years ago, like TL, I managed to secure some absolutely wonderful gemstones that have been confirmed as real, natural, untreated etc and the prices were affordable (relatively speaking). Now, I look on Ebay and find most of the photos have been enhanced (videos too which is mind-boggling), Vendors make wild claims about their gemstones and the prices have sky-rocketed. I have a few Ebay sellers with whom I have a very good relationship and will trust their "eye" and judgement but I also look for a good returns policy.

I still buy from Ebay but I think it takes a practised eye now more than ever to be able to see past the gloss and determine what you're likely to get!

I would never use it as a sole source for buying gemstones though!

 

[LD]

I've just been wandering the avenues of Ebay and thought I would show you the type of auction that rings alarm bells on many levels. Now I have to say I have never bought from this vendor and she may be absolutely/totally genuine but this is what I see when I look at this auction and why I'd never even think of buying from her:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-69-ct-ATTRACTIVE-HOT-PINK-SAPPHIRE-MOZAMBIQUE-NR-/180836895397?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item2a1ab80aa5

1. Photos look too good to be true = pretty sure they've been enhanced.
2. Size of the gem - over 6ct for a sapphire with a $14.99 starting price. Eh?
3. Gem is being sold as IF - huge alarm bells. A sapphire of this size that's IF? With no set price???????
4. Cut - you very rarely see princess cut gems of this size (or even princess cuts in sapphires over 1ct or so)
5. It says "heat only" - on what basis? Where's the evidence?
6. Returns policy has 10% re-stocking fee. Personally I HATE this.

Looking at this auction I immediately think "not real". What makes me even more dislike this auction is the way the stone is being hailed from Mozambique as if it's real.

And lookie lookie ........... you could get it's smaller twin! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-79-ct-RAVISHING-HOT-PINK-SAPPHIRE-MOZAMBIQUE-NR-/170798914440?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item27c4689b88

 

[T L]

After you can weed out the extremely "too good to be true" over-photoshopped pieces as LD posted above, then what you're left with are very included and/or badly cut and/or poorly colored and/or highly included stones that are either inexpensive (because they ought to be) or expensive because they don't have all of the faults I named, but still have a significant one or more (like badly cut and included). For me, I can live with a few inclusions, but aside from that, I have a problem paying too much for a stone that I could get in much better quality a few years ago, for the same amount or less.

MZ,
Thanks for the kind words.

 

[movie zombie]

............ For me, I can live with a few inclusions, but aside from that, I have a problem paying too much for a stone that I could get in much better quality a few years ago, for the same amount or less........



and therein lies the rub for so very many things we purchase....i feel the same way but have to say that i do realize that the cost of everything has gone up and the value of the $ has gone down so perhaps i may have to rethink my "policy" or i'll never buy anything much less a pretty stone! unrealistic IMO to judge the cost of a stone by what it would have been 20 years ago......especially for those starting out. just a fact of life, sigh.

 

[T L]

............ For me, I can live with a few inclusions, but aside from that, I have a problem paying too much for a stone that I could get in much better quality a few years ago, for the same amount or less........



and therein lies the rub for so very many things we purchase....i feel the same way but have to say that i do realize that the cost of everything has gone up and the value of the $ has gone down so perhaps i may have to rethink my "policy" or i'll never buy anything much less a pretty stone! unrealistic IMO to judge the cost of a stone by what it would have been 20 years ago......especially for those starting out. just a fact of life, sigh.

I know, everything has gone up, but I hate paying more for it!! I will just say that I'm glad that I bought some things when I did. However, the prices have gone up by a lot in the last few years. I bought some stones a few years ago that would be selling for far more than what I paid back then. Mahenge spinels are a good example of that price increase.

 

[movie zombie]

and i'm very envious of those that got stop light red spinels some years ago....before spinel became popular and many thought they were synthetic!

sad, isn't it?! but hey the public gets more educated and demands a better product thus reducing the supply of really good stones not to mention the mines not producing......and pricescope with its education has certainly increased consumer awareness. gotta take the good with the bad........sigh.

 

[minousbijoux]

I too sure wish I was paying more attention when the Mahenge spinels first hit the market. I never get tired of seeing your trillion spinel, TL. Its not just vivid, its vivid red with what do you call it? violet secondary? I'd say pink, but that sounds demeaning to that stone...anyway, I've seen a handful of those true, stunningly vivid red Mahenges and I sure wish I had one of my own! I'd treat it really well. I'd take it for walks every day, make sure it bathed regularly, shower it with love.

 

[ThrillofIce1014]

Thank you guys so much! I'm definitely going to stalk more on here. I love love love diamonds but there is something so beautiful about colored gemstones, especially sapphires. I'm slowly learning, and unfortunately I'm on a limited budget, but I do not want to fall for shams and faux stones. Any feedback and advice is truly appreciated and will be followed!

Pser's, please keep responding! I'm a newbie and would love to know what I"m doing one day! By the way, tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be gorgeous and sunny! Perfect for photographing stones!

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

The only ebay vendor I trust these days is Tan. His pictures and videos are true to life or better. The last Mahenge I purchased (last week) is incredible. All others have been disappointments and or returns. The only real deals I get is a seller who is not a gem dealer but is selling a colored stone or diamond ring at a loss. And those are few and far between.

 

[Edward Bristol]

10 years ago, like TL, I managed to secure some absolutely wonderful gemstones that have been confirmed as real, natural, untreated etc and the prices were affordable (relatively speaking).

True, but this is not an ebay specific development.

A common small-talk amongst traders these days may go like this:

"250???? Are they crazy? I remember, 3 years ago, we paid 50!
“Yes, I know! I used to buy this quality for $25/carat in 2005.
“It used to be so cheap! I wish I had bought more of it."
"They all gone crazy!"
Etc.etc.etc.

You can hear that in every meeting. It is so repetitious that one hardly listens anymore.

Some varieties have increased more than other but I can't think of anything half-way natural that has not gone up by 25% or more per year. That is why gem traders are always broke because we know if we don't buy something today it will be double tomorrow.

 

[T L]

The only ebay vendor I trust these days is Tan. His pictures and videos are true to life or better. The last Mahenge I purchased (last week) is incredible. All others have been disappointments and or returns. The only real deals I get is a seller who is not a gem dealer but is selling a colored stone or diamond ring at a loss. And those are few and far between.

I think that mahenge you bought was in his inventory for years. I'm not sure why no one bought it, but you definitely got a good buy and a nice gem.

 

[chrono]

Urgh....pricing for all gemstone varities on eBay, other online vendors, and B&M stores have gone up significantly while the pickings have gone done in quality. Such is the sad state of the gemstone world for the last few years.

 

[PrecisionGem]

10 years ago, like TL, I managed to secure some absolutely wonderful gemstones that have been confirmed as real, natural, untreated etc and the prices were affordable (relatively speaking).

True, but this is not an ebay specific development.

A common small-talk amongst traders these days may go like this:

"250???? Are they crazy? I remember, 3 years ago, we paid 50!
“Yes, I know! I used to buy this quality for $25/carat in 2005.
“It used to be so cheap! I wish I had bought more of it."
"They all gone crazy!"
Etc.etc.etc.

You can hear that in every meeting. It is so repetitious that one hardly listens anymore.

Some varieties have increased more than other but I can't think of anything half-way natural that has not gone up by 25% or more per year. That is why gem traders are always broke because we know if we don't buy something today it will be double tomorrow.

Ed this is so true, and maybe more so for rough. There is a guy from Kenya I have been buying rough from for maybe 10 years. Every year he would tell me.

"Gene... buy what ever you can, the day is coming you wont be able to buy these goods at any price."

Well the day has come. This year he had about 10% of what he normally has, and the prices were significantly higher.
All he kept saying to me is; "I kept telling you to buy"

 

[movie zombie]

and that cost has to be passed onto the consumer with a bit of profit for the trader or the trader just can't do business any longer. i'm wondering if we will see some traders getting out of "the business"?

 

[distracts]

I have a problem paying too much for a stone that I could get in much better quality a few years ago, for the same amount or less.

Unfortunately I can't go back in time.

*sadface*

 

[LD]

10 years ago, like TL, I managed to secure some absolutely wonderful gemstones that have been confirmed as real, natural, untreated etc and the prices were affordable (relatively speaking).

True, but this is not an ebay specific development.

A common small-talk amongst traders these days may go like this:

"250???? Are they crazy? I remember, 3 years ago, we paid 50!
“Yes, I know! I used to buy this quality for $25/carat in 2005.
“It used to be so cheap! I wish I had bought more of it."
"They all gone crazy!"
Etc.etc.etc.

You can hear that in every meeting. It is so repetitious that one hardly listens anymore.

Some varieties have increased more than other but I can't think of anything half-way natural that has not gone up by 25% or more per year. That is why gem traders are always broke because we know if we don't buy something today it will be double tomorrow.

Ed this is so true, and maybe more so for rough. There is a guy from Kenya I have been buying rough from for maybe 10 years. Every year he would tell me.

"Gene... buy what ever you can, the day is coming you wont be able to buy these goods at any price."

Well the day has come. This year he had about 10% of what he normally has, and the prices were significantly higher.
All he kept saying to me is; "I kept telling you to buy"

Apologies - you are both correct! Of course the price increases are not just Ebay they are across the board (unfortunately).

What is probably fair to say is that I (personally) have become less trusting of Ebay for gemstones. The sharp increase (or knowledge) about treatments over the past 10-15 years has made me far more circumspect and there "appears" to be more vendors on Ebay who are less than truthful like the one I linked to in my post above. Of course there are good vendors and I'm not tarring everybody with the same brush.

 

[Edward Bristol]

Ed this is so true, and maybe more so for rough. There is a guy from Kenya I have been buying rough from for maybe 10 years. Every year he would tell me.

"Gene... buy what ever you can, the day is coming you wont be able to buy these goods at any price."

Well the day has come. This year he had about 10% of what he normally has, and the prices were significantly higher.
All he kept saying to me is; "I kept telling you to buy"

Yes, I also buy rough and it is even worse.

A trader friend told me about the good-old-times when he bought a ton of rough hessonite for $8000. That is $8/kilo or 0.8 cent per gram. Of course that probably was 50% throw-out-quality but still. Today hessonite rough can be up to $100 / gram.

 

[beau-wy]

I think the golden days of eBay bargains are behind us. The days of other online bargains are waning too. You have to enjoy the time and effort of the hunt, and not consider it a cost in business terms, to do well with finding "bargains". I will use TL as an example, if the time and effort she puts into sourcing and becoming knowledgeable were figured as a business expense, at $25-30/hr, her bargains would be far more expensive.

I think there has been a true paradigm shift, brought about in part by the fall of King Dollar, and even more so by this phenomenon we call internet. It is much harder to hunt bargains in any fashion, whether online, at shows, from individual vendors, or even at the source. I hear this from antique dealers and retailers of all manner of collector items, from Pez dispensers (which started eBay) to antique glass insulators.

I used to get email and telephone solicitations from source buyers on a regular basis who were short on cash and needing to move goods quickly at a good price. Other than personal relationships, where the other party is doing me a favor, those don't happen any more, it is too easy to reach a buyer who will pay closer to market via the internet.

I picked up a lot of nice bargains on eBay over the years, and hope to get a few more. I do not think I could make a living reselling gems in this day and age. It has been a profitable hobby, but I am glad I did not take the plunge in 2000 that I was considering and quit my "real" job to try and do this professionally. I am active in colored stones because I am crazy for them, not because there is a ton of money to be made buying and reselling.

 

[movie zombie]

i hope those considering a move into the industry read your post.

 

[innerkitten]

Not sure about sapphires but I like ncestones for calibrated rhodolite and amethysts. I've only ever had to return one item. For unusual American turquoise cabs I like Jim's rare gems.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Ebay makes me wary. The only times I"ve bought from ebay dealers for colored gems is when they were PS recommended, and even then, I only really did it twice. Once for a pinkish orange spinel that I just enjoyed the color of (I doubt It'll ever be set, I just like looking at it), it was pretty cheap, but then again, the pastel color isn't really in demand in spinel (that color in sapphire...that's a whole different story).
I also bought a black opal from a vendor that also had an external site and recommended credentials. I think I paid a fair price, certainly much less than brick and mortar retail, but again, it wasn't one of the black opals with lots of red fire that demand top dollar.

Personally I feel better spending reasonable amounts of money via vendors, and I"m happy as long as the price seems fair and affordable. Sometimes vendors have old stock that for whatever reason they haven't been able to move but might be perfect for you, and they can be good value. For example, my tsavorite went unloved on a website for awhile likely due to it being a bit med-dark/dark for most people's liking, so I bought it for a sale price. And I recently got a sapphire that was bought in 2006 and never price adjusted for the past 6 years, so it ended up being significantly cheaper than most comparable pieces I could find. It needs a custom setting since it's a fat trillion, but the color is perfect to me, so I'm happy with it.

 

[ThrillofIce1014]

The only ebay vendor I trust these days is Tan. His pictures and videos are true to life or better. The last Mahenge I purchased (last week) is incredible. All others have been disappointments and or returns. The only real deals I get is a seller who is not a gem dealer but is selling a colored stone or diamond ring at a loss. And those are few and far between.

Hi LisaRN,

I tried looking up Tan because I was curious, and unfortunately, he has nothing for sale. Any other reputable sellers out there I can take a gander at?? Thanks!

 

[chrono]

I tried looking up Tan because I was curious, and unfortunately, he has nothing for sale. Any other reputable sellers out there I can take a gander at?? Thanks!

Can you please be more specific as to what you are looking for. He has plenty in his inventory on all 3 websites.